Chicago Tribune biz columnist leaves paper

Melissa Harris, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and Chicago Tribune business columnist, has been hired by Origin Capital Partners as vice president of marketing.

Harris has been hired to oversee the firm’s new online real estate crowdfunding platform. She started last week.

She is a two-time finalist for The Livingston Award, honoring outstanding reporting by journalists under the age of 35.

Prior to joining the Tribune in 2009, she worked as an award-winning metro reporter at The Baltimore Sun and a metro reporter at The Orlando Sentinel. She is currently enrolled in the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, where she is working toward an MBA, and serves on the board of Chicago Dramatists theater company.

Harris also holds degrees from Northwestern University and Johns Hopkins University.